Best Decade Tournament - 90s - Numbers wins!

[numbers]

it saddens me that i wont' be making my standard 10th round pick this tournament. I've got two great songs lined up for it too.

I thought you wanted to follow the rules of the previous tournaments?

[epilogue]

Basically, you've taken two bands so far that I absolutely expected you to take. But you haven't taken songs by those bands that I expected.

Also, COFFEE!

[ABNorman]

it saddens me that i wont' be making my standard 10th round pick this tournament. I've got two great songs lined up for it too.

My 10th pick is going to be a South African band because nobody here will pick 'em, but I have a coupla Stip-like numbers in contention for number 9.

[Kaius]

Cozy up with me, RM.

Mazzy Star- "Into Dust".

That was beautiful

[Heathen]

it saddens me that i wont' be making my standard 10th round pick this tournament. I've got two great songs lined up for it too.

My 10th pick is going to be a South African band because nobody here will pick 'em, but I have a coupla Stip-like numbers in contention for number 9.

Asimbonanga came out in 1987.

[ABNorman]

it saddens me that i wont' be making my standard 10th round pick this tournament. I've got two great songs lined up for it too.

My 10th pick is going to be a South African band because nobody here will pick 'em, but I have a coupla Stip-like numbers in contention for number 9.

Asimbonanga came out in 1987.

I would've Clegg'd all over the 80's tournament if I had been in it - his 90's stuff is not nearly as good.

[PryTo]

I wouldn’t call Tupac Shakur the greatest rapper of all time. His words were not particularly poetic or anything. He didn’t rhyme in cadences that were especially unique. What he did do, perhaps better than anyone, was convey feeling and emotion. That’s what made him a legend. Those feelings ran the gamut from pure rage to extreme misery and everything in between. It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it that made him stand out.

It’s amazing to think that he was only twenty-five years old when he was killed. His rhymes were obsessed with death, which he predicted over and over again. (See, for example, “Death Around the Corner.) For a guy his age, he recorded a ton of material, most of which has now been released. He left quite a legacy.

It’s hard to pick just one song from Tupac. He released two of the greatest rap albums of all time, one of them a sprawling double LP that cemented his legacy. While he was certainly known for leading the “thug life,” it was his ability to rap with poignancy about softer subjects that made him a fascinating, complex musician. If I were to pick one song from Tupac that stands out to me the most, it would be this ode to his mother, which reveals a surprisingly soft side to the thug lifer. While the words here are pretty spectacular, it’s the delivery that seals the deal.



Tupac Shakur - Dear Mama

[stip]

yeah, corduroy really came out of left field

Erm... only because Alive was still on the table. And I just assumed...

Alive was my backup But Corduory was my 90s song. My love affair with Alive didn't start until the RVM version

[Jorge]

U2 - The Fly

This is one of the few holdovers from my short-lived U2 phase. I really like this song, particularly the guitar sound.

[stip]

U2 - The Fly

This is one of the few holdovers from my short-lived U2 phase. I really like this song, particularly the guitar sound.

it's very un U2

[epilogue]

I wouldn’t call Tupac Shakur the greatest rapper of all time. His words were not particularly poetic or anything. He didn’t rhyme in cadences that were especially unique. What he did so, perhaps better than anyone, was convey feeling and emotion. That’s what made him a legend. Those feelings ran the gamut from pure rage to extreme misery and everything in between. It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it that made him stand out.

It’s amazing to think that he was only twenty-five years old when he was killed. His rhymes were obsessed with death, which he predicted over and over again. (See, for example, “Death Around the Corner.) For a guy his age, he recorded a ton of material, most of which has now been released. He left quite a legacy.

It’s hard to pick just one song from Tupac. He released two of the greatest rap albums of all time, one of them a sprawling double LP that cemented his legacy. While he was certainly known for leading the “thug life,” it was his ability to rap with poignancy about softer subjects that made him a fascinating, complex musician. If I were to pick one song from Tupac that stands out to me the most, it would be this ode to his mother, which reveals a surprisingly soft side to the thug lifer. While the words here are pretty spectacular, it’s the delivery that seals the deal.



Tupac Shakur - Dear Mama

Fuck you, man.

This was my next pick.

[bada]

U2 - The Fly

This is one of the few holdovers from my short-lived U2 phase. I really like this song, particularly the guitar sound.

it's very un U2

The first few notes of the guitar solo were stuck in my head for years.

[PryTo]

The Notorious BIG is another dead rap legend from the 1990s. Only 24 when he was murdered, he released just one album while he was alive. But album number two (a double disc) was slated for release. Biggie didn’t record much else, but what he left us was enough to cement his legend.

With Biggie it was all about the wordplay, how he twisted phrases and lines into unique shapes. He also had a wicked sense of humor that came across in even his most serious songs. Like Tupac, it’s hard to pick a favorite, but this song, the last track on his second album, is one of the best. Just listen to the way he uses words, the rhymes that he stacks on atop the other with panache:

Green with envy, the green tempts me
to make the richest enemy, and take their cheese
Take their spots, take their keys, make my faculty
live happily, ever after in laughter
Hah, never seen Cristal pour faster

And the humor is there, too (“The kids, the dog, everybody dying -- no lying.”) Like much of Tupac’s work, it’s pretty haunting material but it’s one of Biggie’s greatest songs.



The Notorious B.I.G. – You’re Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)

[PryTo]

I wouldn’t call Tupac Shakur the greatest rapper of all time. His words were not particularly poetic or anything. He didn’t rhyme in cadences that were especially unique. What he did so, perhaps better than anyone, was convey feeling and emotion. That’s what made him a legend. Those feelings ran the gamut from pure rage to extreme misery and everything in between. It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it that made him stand out.

It’s amazing to think that he was only twenty-five years old when he was killed. His rhymes were obsessed with death, which he predicted over and over again. (See, for example, “Death Around the Corner.) For a guy his age, he recorded a ton of material, most of which has now been released. He left quite a legacy.

It’s hard to pick just one song from Tupac. He released two of the greatest rap albums of all time, one of them a sprawling double LP that cemented his legacy. While he was certainly known for leading the “thug life,” it was his ability to rap with poignancy about softer subjects that made him a fascinating, complex musician. If I were to pick one song from Tupac that stands out to me the most, it would be this ode to his mother, which reveals a surprisingly soft side to the thug lifer. While the words here are pretty spectacular, it’s the delivery that seals the deal.



Tupac Shakur - Dear Mama

Fuck you, man.

This was my next pick.

Whew, that was close!

[Kaius]

Good job Pry. nice picks

Pac > Biggie btw

[PryTo]

Good job Pry. nice picks

Pac > Biggie btw

Thanks. To be fair to Biggie, Pac had a lot more material to judge. His later material is better than his early stuff. (People forget that Pac was in Digital Underground!)

[bada]

I was a big Digital Underground fan and you could just tell that Tupac was going to be a star.

[epilogue]

I wouldn’t call Tupac Shakur the greatest rapper of all time. His words were not particularly poetic or anything. He didn’t rhyme in cadences that were especially unique. What he did so, perhaps better than anyone, was convey feeling and emotion. That’s what made him a legend. Those feelings ran the gamut from pure rage to extreme misery and everything in between. It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it that made him stand out.

It’s amazing to think that he was only twenty-five years old when he was killed. His rhymes were obsessed with death, which he predicted over and over again. (See, for example, “Death Around the Corner.) For a guy his age, he recorded a ton of material, most of which has now been released. He left quite a legacy.

It’s hard to pick just one song from Tupac. He released two of the greatest rap albums of all time, one of them a sprawling double LP that cemented his legacy. While he was certainly known for leading the “thug life,” it was his ability to rap with poignancy about softer subjects that made him a fascinating, complex musician. If I were to pick one song from Tupac that stands out to me the most, it would be this ode to his mother, which reveals a surprisingly soft side to the thug lifer. While the words here are pretty spectacular, it’s the delivery that seals the deal.



Tupac Shakur - Dear Mama

Fuck you, man.

This was my next pick.

Whew, that was close!

I really REALLY thought about taking it at #2. I'm sure it'll feel more at home on your squad. I wanted it. But I can't think of better home, really.

[Kaius]

Honestly I've just never been a big fan of Biggies tone.

[Jorge]

Honestly I've just never been a big fan of Biggies tone.

File under: Things Said by West Coast Rappers in 1997